Princess Basma inaugurates new women’s union premises

AMMAN — HRH Princess Basma has inaugurated the new headquarters of the Jordanian Women’s Union (JWU) in Jabal Hussein.

The event, held late last week, came as part of the Kingdom’s celebrations to mark International Women’s Day, annually celebrated on March 8.

The princess toured the premises to check on services provided by the JWU, including general medicine, ophthalmology and dental clinics, the women and children’s shelter, tailoring and embroidery facilities, a computer lab, a productive kitchen, and a beauty salon, supported by UN Women and the Italian embassy.

The JWU was established in 1945 as a women’s democratic committee with the aim of strengthening women’s role in society, demanding better rights and fighting all forms of discrimination and violence against women.

JWU President Tahani Shakhshir gave an overview of the union’s activities and campaigns, including raising the marriage age and scrapping Article 308 of the Penal Code, which allows sex offenders to get away with their crime if they marry their victims.

Other campaigns target the human trafficking issue, citizenship, and the civil societies and political parties laws.

JWU Director Nadia Shamroukh, who spoke at the ceremony, affirmed the union’s stand towards major issues, such as calling for secularism and separating religion from the state.

Shamroukh also highlighted the union’s hotline services, first started in 1996, offering social, legal and psychological services to women, the child house service provided to divorced couples, and reconciliation services.

She added that the union runs two shelters, one for abused women and one for human trafficking victims.